SafetyHAT: A Transportation System Safety Hazard Analysis Tool

What Is SafetyHAT?

The transportation systems Safety Hazard Analysis Tool (SafetyHAT) is a software tool that facilitates hazard analysis using the System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA). STPA is a hazard identification method based on a top-down system engineering approach and control systems theory. While some familiarity with STPA is expected before using this tool, one of the primary goals of SafetyHAT is to help safety analysts become proficient with the STPA method. SafetyHAT includes transportation-oriented guide phrases and causal factors that tailor the STPA method to transportation systems.

STPA provides an algorithmic and well-guided analysis process that identifies the causes of system hazards, including:

Hardware component failures

Software errors

Complex system interactions

Human errors

Inadequate organization management, policy, and procedures

The output of STPA is a list of identified causes of hazards that can be used to:

How Do I Get SafetyHAT?

After registering, you will receive an email with directions for downloading the software package. The software package includes:

Installation file

User Guide

End User License Agreement

Feedback and Suggestions

SafetyHAT is provided for free as an unsupported software tool. However, we do encourage users to provide feedback and suggested improvements by emailing SafetyHAT@dot.gov. Suggestions may be incorporated into future releases of SafetyHAT. If you wish to receive email updates when updates or a new version of SafetyHAT is available, please include your email address when registering using the link above.

If you plan on further developing and improving the functionality of SafetyHAT, please contact SafetyHAT@dot.gov.